[NEohioPAL] Review of "Belleville" at Dobama Theatre

Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL neohiopal at lists.neohiopal.org
Mon Sep 8 10:17:45 PDT 2014


Suffering is a prerequisite to enjoying Dobama's 'Belleville'

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

"To be an actress you have to love to suffer, and I only like to suffer," says Abby early in Amy Herzog's "Belleville," which is getting its regional premiere at Dobama Theatre.  She may only like suffering, but the former actress has certainly mastered the art of it.  

 

Despite being a young American living in Paris and teaching yoga while her physician husband conducts important research on pediatric AIDS, Abby (Llewie Nuñez) is miserable.  She is a jumpy, jealous, homesick bundle of neuroses who has taken herself off the antidepressants that have kept her suffering in check and her life in balance.  Amy grows increasingly fragile and ready to implode from the pressure of problems she so vividly imagines.   

 

Or are they real?

 

Abby's husband, Zack (Matt O'Shea), tries desperately to make her happy.  He puts up with her random mood swings, accommodates her controlling and confounding rules of engagement, and keeps himself sane in the process.  His coping mechanisms are questionable -- a fondness for online pornography and sharing the occasional bowl of marijuana with his landlord/ downstairs neighbor, Alioune (Robert Hunter) - but his efforts to make things work seem genuine.

 

Or are they?  

 

As our playwright did in "4000 Miles," which was performed at Dobama in 2012, she once again sets her focus on the intimate particulars that define a problematic relationship between damaged people.  And she does so with the astute attention to detail and the rhythms of naturalistic dialogue that have become her trademark. 

 

This time around, however, the interpersonal dysfunction on display causes so much friction that the characters can warm themselves by it.   And, to make things even more interesting, she places her players and her patrons on shaky ground.

 

For more of this review, go to: http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_60cf63ea-3778-11e4-9c49-001a4bcf887a.html

 
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